Sony has just confirmed that now that the Kickstarter goal has been reached they are in fact helping with funding and development of Shenmue 3

[TheGoldenBoy]

This was always obvious. There was no way Shenmue 3 was being made for $2 million, when the previous game cost over $70 million. There is also the lack of a physical PS4 release option in the tier lists, which Sony will obviously publish.

As for why the Kickstarter exists: it probably was to gauge interest and it's free marketing. Also, the money earned from Kickstarter will probably help a lot with the PC version of the game since most of the rewards are all PC focused.